What is holding me back when playing games?

Jason_302 · Jul 24, 2017

Hi! I am trying to run the game Watch Dogs and I was wondering what part in my computer that is holding me back from running the game on low settings in 1080p. When I set the settings to low on 1080p something in the computer is preventing it from playing smoothly. Thanks!

Here are the specs:
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2
CPU: AMD FX-4300
GPU: Radeon R7 200 series 2GB GDDR3
RAM: 8 GB DDR3

Droid8Apple · Jul 24, 2017

holding you back... does that mean cannot start or runs like crap? i'd expect either from that system. no offense but it's jsut kind of dated. on the other hand, the game is also dated but was a horrific PC port IIRC. Lastly, because Ubisoft.

Jason_302 · Jul 24, 2017

By holding me back I mean that I can play the game fine 720p on the lowest settings but it just looks like crap. When I even turn the resolution in the game up to 1080p still staying on the lowest settings it gets really choppy and laggy.

Hardware Brad · Jul 24, 2017

Upgrading your graphics card will make the biggest improvement.

aquielisunari · Jul 24, 2017

Jason_302 :

First up is the CPU. That is most certainly holding you back.

Upgrade to https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-78LMT-S2-rev-11#support-cpu and your gaming experience will improve.

After that you can upgrade that card to a 1050 Ti to gain even more performance. AMD's new line of GFX cards are about a week from launch. You might want to wait for those cards to be released. I would.

captaincharisma · Jul 24, 2017

yep, that AMD CPU is the weakest link in your build, the GPU is a close 2nd

Calvin7 · Jul 24, 2017

Looks like the motherboard supports DDR3-1600MHz memory.

Memory Clock
This option is configurable only when Set Memory Clock is set to Manual. Options are: X4.00, X5.33,
X6.66 and X8.00.

X8.00 corresponds to 1600MHz, X6.66 corresponds to 1333MHz

FX-4300 supports 1866MHz memory with one DIMM per channel. if your motherboard has a X9.33 memory clock setting, then that is supported. The motherboard is Gigabytes cheapest AM3+ model and may only go to 1600MHz.

aquielisunari · Jul 24, 2017

Jason_302 :

Ah. VRAM, she is the ball and chain.

Consider

If my GFX card only had 2 GB of VRAM it would be slowing down the show because at that point in the game I was using over 2.7GB of VRAM.

That is why you should NOT opt for a 1050 2GB(non Ti) if you are not going to wait for Vega, which you should. 1050Ti 4GB is the weakest card I would recommend.

Hardware Brad · Jul 24, 2017

captaincharisma :

I disagree. The GPU by far is what is holding you back in gaming. The FX-4300, though old, is still a quad core running at 4GHz boost. This CPU is comparable to a pentium G4560. A good graphics card to pair with your FX-4300 would be a 1050ti. This will give you a significant boost in graphics power, while not really being bottlenecked by the CPU. Going any higher than a 1050ti will most likely be bottlenecked by the CPU.

Roland Of Gilead · Jul 24, 2017

aquielisunari :

Jason_302 :

First up is the CPU. That is most certainly holding you back.

Upgrade to https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-78LMT-S2-rev-11#support-cpu and your gaming experience will improve.

After that you can upgrade that card to a 1050 Ti to gain even more performance. AMD's new line of GFX cards are about a week from launch. You might want to wait for those cards to be released. I would.

not sure what your trying to say in your post. You tell the OP his CPU is holding him back, and advise him to get a new motherboard!!!???? Hmmmmmm.

spdragoo · Jul 24, 2017

Hardware Brad :

Have to kind of agree there.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/watch-dogs-2-performance-benchmarks,4844-2.html

Watch Dogs 2 really kills GPUs. For 1080p or lower, if you get a GTX 1060 or RX 480/580, you'll be able to hit ~60FPS on Ultra or Very High settings; a GTX 1050Ti might need to be turned down to Medium.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything about how CPUs affect the performance. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to see if you can find an FX-8300 or FX-8370e CPU for that motherboard, at least to tide you over until you can get a newer build.

@keith12...@aquielisunari was linking to the list of supported CPUs for the OP's current motherboard (Tom's forum truncates the visible portion of the link, but it's visible if you hover over the link with your mouse...or if you bother to click on it).

aquielisunari · Jul 24, 2017

spdragoo :

Hardware Brad :

Have to kind of agree there.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/watch-dogs-2-performance-benchmarks,4844-2.html

Watch Dogs 2 really kills GPUs. For 1080p or lower, if you get a GTX 1060 or RX 480/580, you'll be able to hit ~60FPS on Ultra or Very High settings; a GTX 1050Ti might need to be turned down to Medium.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything about how CPUs affect the performance. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to see if you can find an FX-8300 or FX-8370e CPU for that motherboard, at least to tide you over until you can get a newer build.

@keith12...@aquielisunari was linking to the list of supported CPUs for the OP's current motherboard (Tom's forum truncates the visible portion of the link, but it's visible if you hover over the link with your mouse...or if you bother to click on it).

@spdragoo Thank you

Sorry about that. https://www.amazon.com/AMD-8-Core-FX-8300-Processor-FD8300WMHKBOX

is the CPU upgrade I recommend. It is in the list of supported CPUs. You MIGHT need to update your BIOS.

Jason_302 · Jul 24, 2017

Okay, thanks for all of your support guys! By the way this is a crappy CyberPowerPC that we got a REALLY good deal on so that's the reason why the specs are so bad. I do have all the knowledge to replace parts and such but I'm not too sure what @Calvin7 is talking about with RAM clock? Also I am only trying to play the first Watch Dogs but I imagine I will want to play that after I beat the first one.

Jason_302 · Jul 24, 2017

I've also been thinking, these parts are very expensive for me (a 15 year old) so I was wondering if it would be a better investment to just save up for a new build and instead of getting it from a crappy manufacturer and just build it myself (I'm pretty confident I would be able to do this as I have been repairing computers for a few years).

aquielisunari · Jul 24, 2017

Jason_302 :

Yes. Bumping up to the 1500x R5 will certainly help things along.

James Mason · Jul 24, 2017

Building your own computer is easy. Building it takes 2-3 hours, and installing windows takes about 30mins to 45mins, and after that downloading and installing drivers takes another 30-45 mins. After all that, have it download windows updates at night, it may take a 2-4 passes to get them all.

Building a PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIF43-0mDk4
Installing Windows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAdwedmj1M

Protip for installing drivers safely, install them one at a time and restart the computer after each install to avoid breaking the OS, which can happen if you try to install them all at once.

Jason_302 · Jul 24, 2017

Yes I understand how to build a computer as I have taken computers completely apart and back together again and I have installed windows and drivers MANY times I was just wondering if it would be more cost efficient to build a new pc instead of upgrading this crappy prebuilt one.

jaguarskx · Jul 24, 2017

Don't forget, after Windows is done updating itself run Disk Cleanup and clicked "Clean up system files" to delete all system files download for the update.

I did a clean install of Windows last week on a laptop and there was around 18GB of data from the C: drive to be deleted. It was a combination of system files and files in a folder called Windows.Old which is basically a backup of Windows before all the updates were applied. Cleaning up the hard drive took a while as well, maybe a little over an hour; it's not as quick and simple as deleting 18GB of random files which does not take long at all. Of course, if the laptop had an SSD, then things would have gone a bit faster.

aquielisunari · Jul 24, 2017

jaguarskx :

Ccleaner can in some cases be more thorough than Windows' disk cleanup. It also has a benefit of showing the user what is to be deleted therefore the user can be more involved in the cleanup process. Broad strokes are fine for some but for others they would like to be more informed. Just another opinion in the pool, it is.

You may want to bookmark this page for later use.

Jason_302 · Jul 24, 2017

Ah yes CCleaner I do use that program on most of my computers. It really is a handy tool

jaguarskx · Jul 24, 2017

aquielisunari :

CCleaner does not delete system files from Windows updates. And it will definitely not delete files in the Windows.Old folder.

aquielisunari · Jul 25, 2017

jaguarskx :

https://s5.postimg.org/3we7hynuf/Windows.old.png

It does delete old Windows installations.

It does not delete files from the Windows.SxS folder.

Windows Disk Cleanup doesn't automatically do that. Like you said, it is in the system files. The user needs to click on the System Files button after the initial Disk Cleanup scan is done and the main screen is shown, which will then present the user with that option.

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